Moleleki says not bitter

MASERU-Monyane Moleleki says he is not bitter that he will lose out on a government pension as a former Deputy Prime Minister following the collapse of the coalition government this week.–

Moleleki was just three weeks away from qualifying for the pension.A former deputy Prime Minister is eligible for a pension that includes 80 percent of his monthly salary, medical aid, a government car, driver, a bodyguard as well as a domestic worker.Speaking at a press conference at his Alliance of Democrats (AD) offices in Maseru on Monday, Moleleki said he is content that he will only qualify for a pension as a long-serving MP.

Had the coalition government held on until June, Moleleki would have qualified for the much more lucrative pension and benefits of a former Deputy Prime Minister.The law provides that a former Deputy Prime Minister and their spouse qualify for a pension and accompanying benefits when they have held the office for 36 successive months.Moleleki had spent 35 months in office when the government fell on Monday.

An MP who has served for two successive terms qualifies for a pension.Moleleki has been an MP since 1993 and has always been a minister except between 2012 and 2015 during Thabane’s first coalition government.“I have long qualified for a pension as I have been an MP for 27 years,” Moleleki said.He said people who say he is angry that the collapse of the government had denied him the chance to qualify for a pension as a Deputy Prime Minister were wrong.

Moleleki fought very hard to keep the government intact, fighting from Thabane’s corner as his own All Basotho Convention (ABC) party pushed for his ouster.

At the time there were accusations in the media that Moleleki’s push to save Thabane welled from his desire to qualify for pension benefits.What fuelled these assumptions was that when he defected from the Democratic Congress (DC) in early 2017 he agreed with the then exiled Thabane that they would swap the position of Prime Minister under their new coalition.

The arrangement was that Moleleki would be Prime Minister for the first 18 months, a time period that would qualify him for benefits, and then Thabane would hold the office for the next 18 months.This arrangement did not materialise after the then Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili advised King Letsie III to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections when he lost a no-confidence vote.